Bowl-o-Rama: Project Updates

Hi Everyone,
Well, the end of the month is fast approaching and I need to take a look a some of the bowls that I've turned and see how their doing and if needs be, re-turn them and hollow them out.

Here we go:

Here are the bowls that I began working on earlier this spring. From left to right they are: camphor wood, red elm, rainbow poplar, and silk oak. All of these bowls are 10 inches in diameter and about 3 inches deep and all of them have been a learning experience to work on.

All of the bowls except the silk oak bowl, dried without cracking and with very little distortion and so I remounted them on the lathe and hollowed them out:

 The photo below shows the red elm bowl that I began earlier this month. This is larger than the other bowls: 10" x 5".  I left the walls and bottom of the bowl thick in case it distorted while it dried. It was considerably lighter in weight and this indicates that it's lost a lot of water so I re-turned it and hollowed it out more (bottom photo):

 This bowl will go into the drying bag again and I'll do it's last hollowing out when I re-open in the end of July.

This is the rosewood bowl that I'm making for the Blue House sale later this fall. It too is drying well and so I hollowed it out:

The Blue House Bowl will be hollowed out twice more before it's finished this fall. I'm thinking it will be finished at the end of September.

Now for the silk oak bowl. This is a lovely piece of wood but its had several problems-cracking, and some severe distortion while it dries. I really want to save this bowl and to do so is going to require an extensive re-turning from the bottom up so I'll be setting up for this bowl tomorrow. Here it is at present:

I'm also working on a large hickory bowl at the moment and I'm cutting it a new, more sculpted rim. More pictures on that one coming soon.

I'm going to be closing for the month of July for shop maintenance and repair so I have a lot to do over the next several days-keep in touch.

More later,
VW